The Mothbox uses a Raspberry Pi 5 (or Pi4 and Pijuice), a Talentcell Battery, and a 3 channel relay as its core. The entire materials cost is about $375 per mothbox. (This depends on the options you choose and the prices where you live). Note that many other similar tools for insect monitoring can cost between $7-$15K!

Below we try to include an up-to-date list for building an arbitrary number of Mothboxes.

Here’s a link to a list of most of the parts collected for you.

Electronics

Core Electronics ($233)

Raspberry Pi and Scheduling Devices

OR

Camera

Power

  • Battery : Talentcell 12V Lithium ion Battery PB120B1 ($80) - This is the easier battery to work with, all 12V in and out.

  • OR Talentcell PB240b1 The PB120B1 started going out of stock sometimes, but this updated model should do fine (and has more battery capacity!). The downside is it can be a little trickier to wire up, because it has a 12V and 24V output, so you need to be careful!

  • Relay Expansion Pi Hat (Waveshare 3x relay) ($18)
    • Buy
    • Info
    • Remember you can also wire individual relays, but not solid state relays (they can’t switch low DC voltage).
  • 12V regulator / Step-Up Voltage Booster
    • Buy
    • This extends your battery life by keeping power to the 12V lights even if your battery voltage starts dipping low.
  • 5.5 x 2.1 DC barrel jack cables
    • 2x socket ports (You actually only need 1 socket if you are keeping your UV light internal)
    • 2x plug ports
  • (Optional) Power sensor for monitoring battery levels *Buy

Lighting ($60)

  • Photography Lights (2x)
    • 2x 12V 144 LED ringlight ($23)
    • The 144 LED ringlights seem to be about the brightest diffuse 12V LEDs you can find for the price. They are also quite ubiquitous and a standard(ish) form factor.
    • Purchase 2 of them.
    • 2.55” (65mm) inside and 3.75” (95mm) overall outside diameters.
  • UV lights
    • 12V
      • Any UV light that accepts a 12V input will work easily, such as Cheap 12V Waterproof UV flood ($13)
      • We are also using our custom “Mothbeams,” which are like powerful, open source, bespoke, low cost lepileds. It currently costs about $80 to order them from Moritz at LabLab in Berlin [moritz at lablab.eu] * Or you can order them from Circuithub, but there they cost about $200-$400.
    • 5V (Not Officially Integrated)
  • DIY Heatsink (For internal UV Lights)

The Box ($25)

  • Plano 1460-00 ($25)
    • To be as compact as possible, we designed around the Plano 1460-00 case. It’s cheap, waterproof, CLEAR, quite available internationally, and as compact as possible.
    • (sometimes called plano 3600) 11”L x 7”W x 4”H </span>

Chassis, Arms, and Target Materials

  • Plastic for laser cutting (the design is currently set for 3mm acrylic)
    • One 50x60cm piece of acrylic can fit all the parts, but you could cut from many scraps too.
  • White Felt Acrylic sheets
    • minimum 205x305mm (8x12in)

Camera Lens Gear ($20)

We are turning the box into a kind of 55mm lens camera so accessories that work for a 55mm lens should work

Field Additions

  • Strap (Optional-To attach to tree)
    • [e.g.] (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08BYHZGC4/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1)
  • Lock (optional - to attach to tree if theft is a concern)

Data

Tools for Construction

Here’s a list of the tools you need to actually create a Mothbox. If you are building multiple mothboxes, you likely only need one of these tools no matter how many you make.

Hand Tools

Cutting Tools

Connecting Tools

Electronics Tools